If you are in the market for a tablet device at the moment, the two choices you have are an Apple iOS iPad or one of the growing number of Android tablets. But next year the choice of OS could double.

We all know that Microsoft is set to get Windows 7 on more tablet devices, but some manufacturers are also looking to Ubuntu as a solution. A case in point is the P07 tablet from Chinese manufacturer TENQ.

The P07 looks good on paper. It has a 10-inch capacitive touchscreen, Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 2GB RAM, and a 32GB SSD. Turn it on though, and you have a choice: Windows 7 or Ubuntu?

The Ubuntu edition on offer is the Netbook versions of 10.10 “Maverick Meerkat”. What we don’t know at the moment is whether TENQ intends to ship this as a dual boot tablet, or preferably, offer consumers a choice between Windows or Ubuntu, with the latter being a cheaper device.

There’s no release date for this tablet, but we have to assume it will arrive in early 2011 unless TENQ has trouble sourcing displays.

I don’t think Ubuntu is ready for the tablet market yet, but that’s not going to stop a lot of Linux users wanting to try out this device running the OS.

The netbook edition of Ubuntu is pretty solid, and with the regularity of updates Canonical releases, the experience is only going to get better over the next year if you manage to track the P07 down. Near instant boot times sounds promising, plus the ability to run all your favorite Linux apps on a tablet device is going to go down well. With the guaranteed USB port this tablet will include, adding a keyboard and mouse should be a simple task, too.

iPad is set to dominate the market next year as Android and Windows 7 tablets don’t have a market established yet. But could Linux tablets be a dark horse? I’m sure there’s more than a few geeks out there who’d like a few Ubuntu tablet options.